KARACHI: Mayor Wasim Akhtar has said the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) is striving to control air pollution and is ready to cooperate with anyone who wants to improve the overall environment of the city.

He was talking to a delegation of the United Nations Association of Pakistan (UNAP) which met him at his office on Monday.

The UN team was led by Ms Moohi and included Ghazala Humayun and Aziz Shaikh, while KMC officials who attended the meeting were Farhat Khan, Masood Alam and S.M. Shakaib.

Ms Moohi said Karachi was among those cities which were not only affected by climate change but by environmental pollution as well.

She said her team was considering planting over 5,000 trees in the metropolis to improve its air quality.

The mayor said Karachi was the biggest city and an industrial centre of the country and was expanding at a rapid pace so its issues were also increasing with time and the civic agency, with its meagre resources, was trying hard to provide better facilities to its citizens.

He said efforts were being made so that the city could achieve the goals assigned by the UN in the fields of health, education, gender equality and environment.

Workshops for fire department

Mayor Akhtar said they were setting up three workshops where vehicles and equipment of the fire department would be repaired so that they could save the huge amount they were paying to outside workshops on repairs.

Taking to fire department staffers at a meeting, he said such workshops would be set up at Landhi fire station for Malir and Korangi districts, Sohrab Goth fire station that will serve Central and East districts, and at Central fire station for South and West districts.

He added that the KMC was expecting to receive modern fire engines, snorkels and other equipment under the Karachi Package.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2017